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Virgin plans India foray
New Delhi: Corporate high flier Richard Branson is eyeing India. His
Virgin Atlantic Airlines wants to start direct daily flights from Mumbai and New Delhi to
the UK. Besides, he is also very keen to have a stake in Air-India, the India's national
carrier. A high level team from the airline is now in India holding talks with civil
aviation officials.
Virgin promises lower fares in
the Indo-UK sector. It also wants to tie up with a domestic carrier to provide onward
journey facilities for incoming passengers. A current bilateral agreement between India
and Britain restricts British carriers to a maximum of 16 flights a week between the two
countries. British Airways is already operating 16 flights a week, and is demanding six
more.
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NRIs plan new airline
Mumbai: A consortium of non-resident Indians and a former East West
Airlines executive have come together to set up a new airline, North Star Airlines, for
domestic routes. The company was registered two months ago and has applied for a licence
to begin operations. The company, headquartered in New Delhi, plans to acquire new
aircraft and hopes to start operations sometime in the first quarter of 2000.
Rajiv Jha, the former East West Airlines executive, said
the operations will involve substantial investments covering a major part of the country.
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Cognizant to make
Calcutta its hub
Calcutta: Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation is planning to
develop Calcutta as its hub for core software development in the new millennium. The
company’s president and chief operating officer, Lakshmi Narayan, said the Calcutta
operations will focus on frontier technologies of the future like e-business and
applications management solutions.
The company has infused $25 million into its Calcutta
operations and proposes to spend another $6 - 8 million in 2000. It has opened its third
software development centre in the city.
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ESPN hikes subscription
Mumbai: Pay sports channel ESPN has raised its subscription rates.
Subscribers will have to pay Rs 8.25 instead of the earlier rate of Rs 7 per subscriber
per month from 1 December. The channel said it is revising the rates after 15 months as
its overhead costs for providing live sports programmes have gone up.
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Sanmar sets up ARC
Chennai: Sanmar group has set up an asset reconstruction company to take
over the Rs 37-crore non-performing assets of Overseas Sanmar Financial. The plan is part
of the group's deal with the Nicco group of Calcutta to merge Overseas Sanmar Financial
with Nicco Uco Alliance Credit. The asset reconstruction company has been set up on the
advice of management consulting firm KPMG.
Sanmar and Nicco hope that the merged entity will be a
strong player in the field with total assets of Rs 350 crore, net owned funds of Rs 51
crore, public deposits of Rs 156 crore and bank/institutional borrowings of Rs 116 crore.
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ICICI Venture invests in
Xybridge
Mumbai: ICICI Venture Funds has invested $3 million in Xybridge
Technologies, a US-based subsidiary of Ind-Telesoft of Bangalore, which is into telephone
call control products. The company plans second generation telephone equipment like its
SmartWorks Call Agent, which, in effect, replaces a shared network.
The equipment is said to have the potential to make
existing systems like PBXs and line extensions redundant once internet telephony is in
place.
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Hind Lever brings Calvin
Klein fragrances
Mumbai: Hindustan Lever has launched a complete range of Unilever’s
Calvin Klein fragrances in India. The brands available are Obsession, Eternity, Escape and
Contradiction. The company said the brands are 'master brands' covering products for men
and women. These brands are ranked among the top 20 brands in the US.
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SRA ties up with Carnegie
Mellon
Chennai: The Rs 60-crore SRA Systems is entering the education segment
and is tying up with Carnegie Mellon University to offer web-based training programmes on
computers. Carnegie Mellon is the top American educational institution in computer
science.
SRA has set up a division called SRA Carnegie Software
Education for offering computer education courses basically meant for people who are
changing careers to get into computers. The course content will be developed by Carnegie
Technology Education, a wing of the university. The modules will be provided online.
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M&M to launch
Savari
Mumbai: Mahindra & Mahindra is launching 'Savari', a new
multi-utility vehicle, and an upgraded version of its Marshal, to meet Euro 1 emission
norms. Both vehicles will be in the showrooms in December.
The Savari will be equipped with a direct injection
2.5-litre engine and a four speed gear box. It will have a new generation chassis,
suspension and instrument panel. A hard top vehicle with four metal doors, the Savari will
be available in six, 10 and 12-seater options. It is priced around Rs 3.88 lakh (ex-show
room). The other features are disc brakes in the front and a four-wheel drive option.
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Mulchandanis plan
to relaunch Bush
Mumbai: The Mulchandanis' Baron group is understood to be relaunching the
Bush brand, which has been in hibernation for nearly a decade. The group is introducing
Bush black and white television sets in north India. Bush India was incorporated in the
early 1950s but wound up operations following labour problems in the early 1990s. The
group is convinced that Bush still commands a brand value and is keen that it is revived.
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R&D award for
Telco
Mumbai: Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company has bagged the national
award for research and development efforts in the mechanical engineering industries
sector. The award is for the company’s efforts in indigenous design, development and
commercialising of the Indica car. The award will be presented at the 13th
national conference on in-house R&D in industry.
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Schroeder saves
Holzmann
Frankfurt: The German government has come in to help save the
country’s second largest builder, Philipp Holzmann, from insolvency and thousands of
its employees from total joblessness. German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said an
agreement has been reached with the 150-year-old company’s creditor banks. The
company will remain intact and the threat to up to 70,000 jobs has been removed, said Mr
Schroeder.
Holzmann management board chairman Heinrich Binder said
the company will withdraw its filing for insolvency that it registered with courts
earlier. The company has been on the brink of insolvency after it discovered DM 2.4
billion worth of losses. Under the resurrection plan, the government has brought in DM 250
million of assistance in the form of a loan and a loan guarantee.
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DaimlerChrysler-Honda
tie-up rumoured
Tokyo: Speculation that German-American carmaker DaimlerChrysler is
acquiring a stake in Honda Motor Company led to a virtual spiral of Honda's stock prices
in the Japanese markets. The Honda stock rose 11 per cent at one point. A German magazine
had reported that DaimlerChrysler wants to acquire a stake in Honda. The magazine, Wirtschaftswoche,
said DaimlerChrysler chief executive Juergen Schrempp prefers Honda to Fiat or
Peugeot-Citroen.
DaimlerChrysler is in talks with several carmakers,
including Fiat and Peugeot-Citroen to set up a compact car business.
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Case against Microsoft
New York: A group of Florida lawyers has filed a new class action suit
against Microsoft saying that the software company overcharged for its Windows 95
operating system after the updated Windows 98 version was released. The suit accuses
Microsoft of violating the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act and federal
antitrust laws.
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Reckitt-Benckiser deal
approved
Washington: US regulators have cleared Reckitt & Colman’s
purchase of Dutch detergents group Benckiser on the condition that two Benckiser brands be
sold. The regulators said the Scrub Free and Delicare business of Benckiser will be
acquired by Church & Dwight Company, maker of the Arm & Hammer line of consumer
products.
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